Instagram – Lodginghttp://lodgingmagazine.com
Official Publication of the AH&LAFri, 09 Dec 2016 20:22:37 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Instagram-Inspired Wanderlust Becomes Business Driverhttp://lodgingmagazine.com/instagram-inspired-wanderlust-becomes-major-business-driver/
http://lodgingmagazine.com/instagram-inspired-wanderlust-becomes-major-business-driver/#respondWed, 23 Mar 2016 12:22:52 +0000http://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=23923As countless BuzzFeed listicles, Facebook updates, and Instagram feeds would suggest, web-based globetrotter pictorials have become a leading inspiration for travelers all over the world. Regular social media users are easily enticed by engaging photographs of worldly attractions, exotic delicacies, and luxury hotel vacations. It was with a keen understanding of the opportunities inherent in a strong social media presence that Starwood Hotels & Resorts decided to turn the internet spotlight on its Luxury Collection ...

]]>As countless BuzzFeed listicles, Facebook updates, and Instagram feeds would suggest, web-based globetrotter pictorials have become a leading inspiration for travelers all over the world. Regular social media users are easily enticed by engaging photographs of worldly attractions, exotic delicacies, and luxury hotel vacations.

It was with a keen understanding of the opportunities inherent in a strong social media presence that Starwood Hotels & Resorts decided to turn the internet spotlight on its Luxury Collection brand through a partnership with travel influencer Beautiful Destinations. The marriage between the two exposes the hotel brand to the more than 8.6 million travel buffs who actively follow Beautiful Destinations’s Instagram accounts. These accounts are spearheaded by Instagram guru and Beautiful Destinations founder, Jeremy Jauncey. “We created this community to spotlight what we believe are the most beautiful places on Earth,” Jauncey explains. “Now, we’re using our influence to grow the social media profiles of top-tier travel brands and working with them to create social content and activate an audience on Instagram.”

The partnership with Beautiful Destinations allows guests at Luxury Collection hotels to interact with the account and post personal photos with hashtags relevant to their travel experiences. “We want to empower travelers and travel enthusiasts to be curious about their travel experience, to seek out the beauty of the world, and become what Luxury Collection is calling a ‘global explorer,’ all on Instagram,” Jauncey says. “You can really discover the most stunning places online, and there are Luxury Collection properties that have amazing historical value rooted in the indigenous culture of the destination.”

But this partnership isn’t only about making guests feel included or convincing a waffling traveler to commit to staying in a certain hotel. Beautiful Destinations also offers its partners data-driven marketing strategies that lead to actionable insights and measurable results. “Social media lets us measure not only the number of followers, but also the level of engagement and virility of a particular post,” Jauncy describes. “Additionally, at Beautiful Destinations, we have proprietary tools that allow us to see not only what was viewed the most, but what behaviors followed after viewing, which is key to measuring impact. And, once you measure impact, you can determine the return on your investment.”

Senior Vice President and Global Brand Leader of the Luxury Collection, Hoyt Harper, made the decision to partner with Beautiful Destinations to introduce the Luxury Collection to a wider, more socially-connected audience. “We pride ourselves in being a destination authority, and we have these magnificent landmark hotels around the world in very exciting destinations. Our social media accounts can help introduce those destinations to a whole new demographic.” Harper adds that Beautiful Destinations—and the virtual experience the social media outlet creates—will strengthen and amplify his brand’s audience. “We do more than just provide great lodging and great service,” Harper explains. “We help our guests create memorable experiences, and once you’ve created those memorable experiences, sharing them on Instagram is a great channel to inspire our guests.”

]]>This month, Loews Hotels & Resorts is debuting a new advertising campaign that features real-life images posted by hotel guests during their stay. Inspired by the significant increase in engagement with social media and Loews’ ongoing social innovation, #TravelForReal reflects the brand’s passion for authentic guest experiences.

Rather than relying on focus groups, camera crews, or models, the brand combed social media channels to find guests’ photos taken at Loews properties, showcasing their distinct experiences across the brand.

In July 2013, Loews Hotels & Resorts launched “The Room You Need” campaign, which was designed to reflect the ways guests interact with their hotels. After noticing a substantial increase in engagement with social media posts that included guests’ user generated content, Loews decided to take this approach beyond the social media realm and into all facets of marketing. The brand will feature imagery posted to public social media accounts, the majority of which is sourced from Instagram.

Created under the direction of Chief Marketing Officer Bruce Himelstein, along with Catch New York, the ads will appear in a mix of travel and lifestyle publications in July, including Condé Nast Traveler, Bon Appetit, Wired, and Architectural Digest.

“We feel as a leader within the social media arena, #TravelForReal was a logical next step for us to take as a brand,” Himelstein said. “The Room You Need really tapped into how people felt when they were away, and #TravelForReal will let guests to show us through their own images how they feel when they are staying with us, allowing us to tell our story in a unique way with ‘real’ images.”

Loews Hotels & Resorts currently has a portfolio of 23 properties in the U.S. and Canada, two additional properties under construction, and three distinct brands: Loews Hotels & Resorts, Loews Regency, and the OE Collection.

]]>http://lodgingmagazine.com/loews-new-ad-campaign-showcases-real-guests/feed/0Using Instagram to Acquire More Customershttp://lodgingmagazine.com/using-instagram-to-acquire-more-customers/
http://lodgingmagazine.com/using-instagram-to-acquire-more-customers/#respondWed, 18 Jun 2014 13:00:31 +0000http://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=12152Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. The popular photo-sharing app amassed 150 million monthly users in about three years—two years faster than Facebook and half the time of Twitter, according to L2 Think Tank. And now, hotels are leveraging Instagram’s easy-to-use interface, mobility, and visual appeal to acquire customers. Alex Weiss, partner at CA Creative, a New York-based digital media agency, says Instagram is a useful marketing tool for hotel chains ...

]]>Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. The popular photo-sharing app amassed 150 million monthly users in about three years—two years faster than Facebook and half the time of Twitter, according to L2 Think Tank. And now, hotels are leveraging Instagram’s easy-to-use interface, mobility, and visual appeal to acquire customers.

Alex Weiss, partner at CA Creative, a New York-based digital media agency, says Instagram is a useful marketing tool for hotel chains because 60 percent of its user base comes from outside the United States. Having a global reach is important to major brands, and they can engage with potential customers from all over the world. “We’ve seen a lot of success with it so far in terms of being able to increase brand awareness and drive traffic to hotels,” Weiss says.

By regularly sharing photos on Instagram, hotels can convey their personalities, surroundings, décor, events, and other unique aspects to their customers, allowing them to get a real feel for the property.
In the hands of CA Creative, Edition Hotels’ Instagram account has grown to nearly 8,000 followers. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase the lifestyle, the amenities, the great design, the culture, the neighborhood, the events, and the brand ethos,” Weiss says. “We think it’s a really great fit for the hospitality industry.”

While there’s no direct correlation between Instagram engagement and sales, it’s a chance for hotels to expand their audience and market specifically to people who show an interest in their brands. “People who do engage are more likely to be consumers,” Weiss says.

Instagram’s analytics tools lag somewhat behind those of other social platforms, Weiss says, so it’s more challenging to figure out the referral traffic. But it still provides valuable insight into demographics and the types of customers who are interacting. “You do get a lot of great data, and you’re still able to strategically see what’s exciting about your hotel, what you can do more of, and how to promote it correctly.”

]]>http://lodgingmagazine.com/using-instagram-to-acquire-more-customers/feed/0Starwood Featuring Instagram on All Property Websiteshttp://lodgingmagazine.com/starwood-featuring-instagram-on-all-property-websites/
http://lodgingmagazine.com/starwood-featuring-instagram-on-all-property-websites/#respondWed, 11 Dec 2013 15:26:14 +0000http://lodgingmagazine.com/?p=8593STAMFORD, Conn.—Guests of Starwood’s more than 1,150 hotels capture and share an average of 40,000 images per month on Instagram, and in response, the company announced that it is integrating Instagram on all of its websites worldwide. New “Guest Galleries from Instagram” showcase the explosion of social sharing through Instagram photos and videos geo-tagged by Starwood’s digitally-savvy guests. From hotel amenities to eye-catching local sites, the enhanced galleries offer a new way for travelers to ...

]]>STAMFORD, Conn.—Guests of Starwood’s more than 1,150 hotels capture and share an average of 40,000 images per month on Instagram, and in response, the company announced that it is integrating Instagram on all of its websites worldwide. New “Guest Galleries from Instagram” showcase the explosion of social sharing through Instagram photos and videos geo-tagged by Starwood’s digitally-savvy guests. From hotel amenities to eye-catching local sites, the enhanced galleries offer a new way for travelers to explore their next Starwood destination.

For each hotel and resort across Starwood’s nine brands, visitors can view photos and videos geo-tagged by guests who have experienced that Starwood hotel. The addition of Instagram galleries gives travelers the opportunity to view an authentic representation of each brand by exploring brand-specific categories including: Family Traditions for St. Regis, Fashion for W Hotels, UnLock Art for Le Méridien, Move Well for Westin, and a special category for Instagrams tagged with #SPGLife.

“A ‘picture is worth a thousand words’ and a picture shared is worth even more to our guests,” said Chris Holdren, senior vice president, Starwood Preferred Guest and Digital. “Starwood’s mobile bookings are growing five times faster than the annual growth rate of the web channel 10 years ago. With an increasingly mobile, digital traveler we expect social sharing in places like our Instagram Guest Gallery pages will continue to change how our guests book travel and explore and interact with our hotels.”